For the second straight year, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster retained its top spot in 2026 in the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) of the world's top 100 innovation clusters which was published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Tuesday.

“We warmly welcome the innovation cluster ranking published by WIPO, which reaffirms the outstanding innovative capacity and the innovation and technology (I&T)-supporting financing ecosystem of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” a government spokesman said.

It noted that expediting I&T development has been the administration's priority and its work had begun to show results.

For instance, the number of start-ups in the SAR has surged by more than three fold to over 5,200 last year compared with a decade ago.

The two local flagship tech hubs – Hong Kong Science Park and Cyberport – have nurtured about 20 unicorns so far, the spokesman said.

More than 100 technology enterprises and institutions have already signed leases with the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone even though it only opened in December last year.

Along with the Hetao zone, the spokesman said the San Tin Technopole would "form a crucial node for the integrated development of upstream, midstream and downstream industries".

It also noted that Hong Kong ranks second in Asia after the mainland for private equity assets under management of nearly US$250 billion, adding that the government had been stepping up the development of venture financing as a crucial element for the city's I&T and commercialisation ecosystem.

Looking ahead, the government spokesman said the SAR would actively align with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan to step up the city’s strategic positioning as an international I&T hub.

The spokesman added that Hong Kong would further step up collaboration with GBA cities and contribute to the nation’s development.

The GII Cluster ranking identifies local concentrations of world-class innovation activity through three key metrics, including the number of international patent filings via WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the number of scientific publications produced, and the number of venture capital deals completed.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster filed more than 2,200 PCT applications, published more than 4,000 scientific articles, and had roughly 140 venture capital deals – all per one million inhabitants over the last five years.





Edited by Tony Sabine